When I was in middle school, I loved to dance. I danced whenever I got the chance. At one point, my feet were getting uncommonly tired all the time. Soon after that, they were covered with warts.

Using Christian Science for healing was what my mom and I always did. When I was sick, I'd ask her to read to me from Science and Health, and I always got better.

This time, my mom suggested that I was old enough to ask a Christian Science practitioner myself to pray for me to heal the warts. I had never done this before and wasn't sure what to expect, but I knew that the practitioner had dedicated her life to helping others with prayer. The practitioner I knew was kind and had a knock-your-socks-off joy that was infectious. Still, it took courage for me to call her. Finally I did call, though, and told her I was very unhappy because of warts all over my feet. I asked if she would please help me through prayer to be healed.

She immediately put me at ease. I was so relieved that she didn't ask me how often I went to Sunday School, or why I thought those ugly things were on my feet. And she didn't ask how they looked.

What she did say still resonates: "Oh, be joyful! Be joyful that we have this opportunity to see healing!" I remember being so surprised. I temporarily forgot about my feet and eagerly listened to what she had to say. She suggested I sing a hymn, one I already knew from my Christian Science Sunday School, and to think about it. I sang that hymn all day. Singing it made me smile. It was as if I could feel that healing was all about walking with joy—an idea that seemed both fun and funny because I loved dancing so much. Here's the first verse:

More than explaining God's love to me, the practitioner was loving. And after talking with her, I felt loved. I began to understand how powerful divine Love is, and how natural it is to expect healing.

By the next morning, my feet were totally clear—not a wart, not a mark. I could dance again without my feet getting tired. I remember being so happy! And as it turned out, I never had warts again.

Looking back, I've appreciated again and again the healing power of joy. This is a joy that goes deeper than any kind of trouble you have, roots it out, burns it up, and claims victory before, during, and after the healing.

Joy is really a spiritual quality from God, and therefore endures. To me, because joy is spiritual, it expresses intelligence, enabling us to see what is really true. One definition of joy calls it a "glorious and triumphant state." I was learning the happy fact that warts could not be part of my identity. And for the first time, I saw that joy comes from understanding the ultimate triumph of God, who is Life itself, over any discordant situation.

Now when I'm overwhelmed with pain or anxiety and it feels as if there's no end in sight, I remember that feeling of joy, that promise that there is never any difficulty beyond God's care and grace. It's almost as if there are arms lifting me up out of any pain—and whatever is bothering me is gone. Christian Science has taught me that there is no pain so deep, no anxiety so far-reaching, no calamity so high, that God cannot be felt. As another hymn promises, "Earth has no sorrow that Love cannot cure" (Thomas Moore and Thomas Hastings, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 40).

My first call to a practitioner was truly a walk with Love and joy. And I continue to learn that it is the joy—the triumph of Life divine—that breaks down any hypnotic hold, whatever the discord. And that's a promise everyone can expect to experience.

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